If I Was a Poor Black Kid
In Gene Mark’s article, if I was a poor black kid (published in December 2011: Forbes Magazine), he tries to illustrate how it is a difficult task for young children growing up among the 99% families who do not own the factors of production in the united states, to develop their full potential in the country’s educations system. Specifically, Gene Mark explores the struggles children with color undergo in the country’s education system to realize their potential. In this article, Gene Mark highlights that though the country has systems and structures that are channeled to meet the needs of an individual to develop and realize their full potential, there are specific challenges that black children face while trying to compete with their counterparts with white skin color. One of the challenges these children face is the availability of resources in their locality. In most instances, black children grow up in locations with few and inadequate resources like Philadelphia. Through this, they cannot effectively benefit from the opportunities brought by free internet. This significantly impacts their level of competition with their counterparts from the white race. As a result of this, they experience difficulties in accessing the well-enhanced learning institutions that demand better performance. Through this, Gene Mark confirms that the majority of black kids in the United States fail to realize their full potential as a result of the existing systems and structures.
The speech from president Barrack Obama a week earlier laid the foundation for gene mark’s claim. In his speech concerning the inequalities in America president Barrack Obama observed that inequality is the defining issue in this generation. Its significance places it as a make or breaks moment for the middle class and those individuals at the lower levels in the society trying their best to reach the middle-class level. It determines whether the united states will be a country where the working class can earn enough money to raise a privileged family, master sufficient savings that can help them build a nice home, and secure their retirement. These sentiments echo the existing situations within the country. The several daunting economic situations the country has gone through over the years like the 2008 housing scheme bubble, expose a significant number of its middle-class population to economic turmoil. Consequently, a considerable number of individuals at this level are demoted to lower ranks as they cannot afford to master descent saving schemes to build nice houses and secure their retirement. These reflect the writer’s idea of a struggling middle-class population in the country, especially, the families with colored skin.
The writer utilizes logos in expressing the available technological platforms that are used by learners to enhance their education. Some of the technological platforms mentioned by the writer Include Google Scholar, Academic Earth, SparkNotes, Wikipedia, and the CIA world factbook. Additional technological platforms mentioned by the writer include online calculators, Quizlet, and Evernote, which are essential websites used by learners in the country to enhance their homework. Though these technological platforms are in existence and utilized by learners, the less privileged in the society cannot use the. Individual black children face a significant challenge in accessing these technologies since the majority of them do not have the necessary devices required to access these platforms. Consequently, the children with no color who access these platforms exhibit superior standards than them; hence dominate over them (Spring 18). Through all these, the statements represented above highlights logical fallacies that are quite ineffective in this case. The writer also states that black children can concentrate on developing their skill set in unique employment opportunities in the contemporary world. Through this, he suggests learning software development to increase the opportunities they have in the job market. This further weakens his argument since black children cannot afford the necessary structures needed to engage in such learning opportunities.
On the same note, Gene Mark observes that there exist well-enhanced learning institutions in the locations within inadequate resources like Philadelphia, which hosts a good number of the struggling black children in the country. Some of these schools include Central Girls High School and Masterman School. These schools are free and open to all. However, the problem is that they demand a good test score and good grades. Similarly, there are better private schools in this area. However, these schools are filled with privileged children from the 1% population who own the factors of production in the United States. Additionally, even if there were chances for admission into these schools, the amount of fees demanded on an annual basis is quite high for black children from struggling Philadelphian black population. These highlights an effective utilization of logos in ensuring a convincing delivery of content.
Additional logos involve when the writer presents that some parents, mostly single parents always work two jobs, which render them too tired when they get back home. Consequently, they cannot engage in a lot of things at home during their few hours of rest. Similarly, teachers in schools where the majority of the black children attend teachers are overburdened with the huge population of students they have to serve. As a result of this, they do not have time to gauge the quality of their education individual learners receive. These are effective observations since they form some of the fundamental issues that hinder black children from accessing quality education that can enable them to compete effectively with their counterparts (Murry and Velma 390).
However, the writer utilizes ethos in illustrating that in all these challenges black children face they still have a way of accessing these private schools to enhance their education and effectively develop their skills for better opportunities. Through this, Gene Mark observes that the private institutions value diversity for the general good of the society, and for this reason, they have bursary programs that individual students from financially struggling families can utilize in financing their education in these institutions. The writer further states that these institutions always embrace diversity in their fundraising brochures, an opportunity that black children should grab to get access to these institutions.
The manner in which the writer uses pathos to ensure an emotional attachment among the audience is quite intriguing. The writer illustrates that black children should ensure they make their case within their environment by utilizing the available resource. Through this, Gene Mark states that black children should utilize the available technological infrastructure to alert the stakeholders in the education sector that they have good grades and are interested in going to school. Further, Gene Mark highlights the significance of the guidance counselor to the black kids, which also contains an emotional attachment. In this, the writer says that the guidance counselor can help these students secure summer employment at a business or a law firm owned by the 1% who control the factors of production. This is not quite effective in this case since guidance counselors have little powers in helping individual students secure such employment opportunities.
There is a significant level of consistency in the style of writing utilized by Gene Mark in this article. He constantly utilizes words like diversity and color, signals the application of sophisticated diction. A sophisticated diction writing style utilizes worlds with many syllable meaning in maintaining the readers’ interest in the piece of writing. Similarly, the use of negative words like hampers and hinders are also quite effective in illustrating to the reader that the systems and structures put in place do not favor the less privileged black children.
Throughout the article, Gene Mark has identified the existing social problem within the United States in regard to the level of opportunity the black children always have compared to the privileged white children. Form the presentation is quite clear that the black children from less privileged families are disadvantaged in this and hampers their success rate later in life. Similarly, the writer demonstrates a high level of social understanding by presenting some viable solutions that can be utilized by these black children in enhancing their effective competition with their counterparts. One of these solutions entails the use of the available technological framework. The other solution is the exploitation of the existing systems and procedures to one’s advantage.
Work cited
Marks, Gene. “If I Were A Poor Black Kid.” Forbes, 7 Aug. 2012, www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2011/12/12/if-i-was-a-poor-black-kid/#5199290c512c.
Murry, Velma McBride, “Excavating new constructs for family stress theories in the context of everyday life experiences of Black American families.” Journal of Family Theory & Review 10.2 (2018): 384-405.
Spring, Joel. deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of the education of dominated cultures in the United States. Routledge, 2016.